Local historian develops military game

December 9, 2012

LEETONIA - Local historian Paul Rohrbaugh has a military strategy game posted on the journal Foreign Policy website. He was contacted by Foreign Policy author Michael Peck after he discovered Rohrbaugh's game "War With a Vengeance" dealing with the V-1 campaign during World War II and compared it to the recent crisis between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza. That article can be viewed here:

www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/20/israel-2012-vs-london-1944. Email discussions between the two resulted in the prototype solitaire play board game titled "A Reign of Missiles: the Gaza Missile Crisis, November 2012" being created and posted on the journal's website. Readers can download the files for the solitaire play game from here:

www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/27/launch-your-own-gaza-war Those who do so and play the game can post comments and suggestions about the game as well as the events in the Middle East that are affected by the crisis. This use of a board game by the journal Foreign Policy to encourage learning and understanding of recent events is the first-ever such endeavor by that publication.

Rohrbaugh has designed and used games throughout his 32-year teaching career. He has published over 100 board games, received two Charles S. Roberts Awards for game design and development, as well as presented on the design and use of board games in the classroom at numerous conferences, among them ones at Braunfels, Germany and the College of Graduate Studies in History at the King's College of London. Rohrbaugh also founded his own game publishing business, High Flying Dice Games, writes and presents upon numerous topics in local history.